University Of Illinois Launches IMMERSE To Enable Computing's Next Frontier

At Illinois, Adve said, redefining what’s next is “in our DNA.”

This includes Adve’s own research lab, ILLIXR, which conducts augmented reality (XR) hardware and systems research and maintains the first of its kind end-to-end open source augmented reality (XR) system used in industry and academia .

Recent appointments in haptics and computer vision complement existing research in these and other immersive technologies such as graphics, audio, generative AI, robotic telepresence, networks, distributed systems, hardware, programming systems, and security and privacy.

Adve also noted that the campus offers many classes that use XR capabilities. A long-running effort is an ECE class in electromagnetism that uses VR capabilities.

The Carle Illinois College of Medicine has enthusiastically embraced VR technology to train physicians and to prepare and deliver care in the surgical environment.

These efforts and others on campus provide real-world testbeds to see the limits of today’s technology, inspiring research and evaluation methods for needed advances.

The Siebel Center for Design is poised to launch an immersive experience certificate that will include courses based on design thinking for immersive experiences and provide prototyping facilities, drawing on research from Industrial Design and the Colleges of Education, Media and others on assessing the goodness of immersive complement. systems.

The Grainger Engineering Library’s IDEA Lab provides teaching and consulting services as well as state-of-the-art facilities and equipment to faculty, students and staff who wish to apply exciting technologies in their research and teaching.

Spinning out of the Game Studies and Design undergraduate minor established within the School of Information Sciences, The Studio is a student-driven outlet dedicated to innovative and unique methods for immersive application development while following game industry standards.

Gies College of Business trains students to approach technology in their discipline and has an exciting “disruption lab” program that embraces immersive technologies.

Adve also mentioned the National Center for Supercomputing Applications’ long history with VR through the second-ever CAVE deployment and award-winning visualizations. And here at CS, Professor Steve LaValle’s experience as Founding Chief Scientist for Oculus VR led to the company’s acquisition by Meta for $2 billion and a consumer VR revolution.

IMMERSE harnesses all these efforts and seeks to catalyze the intellectual inspiration needed to advance the field through research, education, and physical and virtual infrastructure.

That process took its next step on Monday, May 15, when IMMERSE leaders led a workshop for faculty and staff at the Siebel Center for Computer Science. University leaders such as Rashid Bashir, dean of the Grainger College of Engineering, and Susan Martinis, vice chancellor for research and innovation, joined the conversation.